The invention relates to an information processing system for handling a plurality of information objects, an information object having an object representation including one or more object attributes, the system comprising                an input device allowing a user to select a particular information object through the object representation of the information object, and        processing means for processing the selected information object.        
The invention further relates to a method for processing a particular information object in an information processing system comprising a plurality of information objects, an information object having an object representation including one or more object attributes, the method comprising the steps of:                selecting, by a user by means of an input device, the particular information object on the basis of at least one of the object attributes, and        processing the selected information object.        
An example of such an information processing system is a Personal Computer equipped with the e-mail system ‘cc:Mail for Windows, Version 2.2’. This system processes information objects, referred to as messages, in various ways. The user may choose to read a newly received message that is displayed by the system, and the system will subsequently display the contents of the message. In that system a message is represented by a line of text, including the name of the author, the date, the size and the subject of the message. The user selects a message by moving an indicator to the representation of the message and by subsequently confirming that this message is desired. The selection is carried out by means of the input device of the system, e.g. a mouse, whereby a pointing arrow directly follows the movements of the mouse and the confirmation is given through a button on the mouse. In addition to messages, the e-mail system comprises containers, referred to as folders, for storing messages. A folder can hold a number of messages and is represented by an icon symbolising the folder in a graphical way. The user may store a message in a folder by first selecting a message and then specifying in which folder the message has to be stored. Alternatively, the message may be transferred to a desired folder through a so-called ‘drag and drop’ mechanism. To this end, the user moves the pointing arrow to the representation of the relevant message and selects this message by pressing the mouse button. Then, while pressing the button, the user moves the pointing arrow with the ‘attached’ representation of the message to the desired folder and releases the button when the representation of the message is above the icon of the folder. The system then stores the selected message in that folder. In addition to folders made available by the system, the user may create his own folders so that he can store the messages in folders according to a suitable classification.
In the known system, a message is represented by a line of text on a display. Selecting a particular message that is to be processed, from a number of available messages requires a careful inspection of the representations of these messages in order to determine which one is to be selected. This is especially true if there are a lot of available messages, e.g. the newly received messages during the past days and the more urgent ones must be handled first. When it is established what message is to be selected, the user has to manipulate the input device in such a way that the desired message is actually selected.